Nearly seven years after opening as Ecco on Orange, the 300-unit apartment community south of downtown Orlando has a new owner and a $68.2 million sale price.
Atlanta and Hamburg-based ParkProperty Capital acquired the property at 3219 S. Orange Ave., recently rebranded as Hadlow at SoDo, from an entity tied to Atlanta-based investment management, development, construction and property management firm Cortland. The cash sale closed Sept. 16.
The 300-unit apartment complex sits along South Orange Avenue near Plaza Ecco and the Publix-anchored Market at Southside. (Orange County Property Appraiser)
As of June 30, Cortland reported $19.4 billion in gross real estate value, 231 managed properties and 73,700 apartments across 24 U.S. markets. Of those properties, 156 were associated with client funds or other investment vehicles.
At approximately $227,300 per apartment, the transaction is one of the larger recent multifamily investments in Orlando’s urban core. It also offers a window into a broader shift taking place in the apartment market, where well-capitalized firms are returning to acquisitions after several years of higher interest rates, falling property values and slower sales.
Sale comes amid an apartment market reset
The community began as Ecco on Orange after an affiliate of LeCesse Development bought the 3.7-acre site for $5.625 million in January 2018. Construction began that spring with a $40.2 million loan from Fifth Third Bank. LeCesse completed the 300-unit complex in 2019 with three residential buildings and a parking garage topped by a swimming pool.
It was part of a larger mixed-use development that included 60,000 square feet of retail, anchored by Lucky’s Market, at the corner of Orange and Pineloch avenues. The specialty grocer closed a year later and was replaced by Publix.
In 2021, the ownership entity became an affiliate of Cortland. The complex later operated as Cortland on Orange before being renamed Hadlow at SoDo around the time of the ParkProperty acquisition.
The county tax roll shows how the property’s valuation shifted in the years leading up to the sale. The Orange County Property Appraiser’s market value for the complex fell from about $75 million in 2023 to $68.9 million in 2024 and $57.7 million in 2025, before rising to a working 2026 value of approximately $60.4 million.ParkProperty’s $68.2 million purchase price is about 13% above the current figure but remains approximately 9% below the county’s 2023 valuation.
The deal comes as large investment firms hold a growing share of the nation’s apartment inventory, with the concentration higher in Florida and metro Orlando. A 2026 analysis by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project estimated that private equity firms own about 13% of U.S. apartments, compared with 21.8% in Florida and 32.2% in metro Orlando. Locally, apartment sales increased 56% in 2025 even as the median price per unit remained about 25% below its 2022 level, according to Northmarq.
Hadlow builds on buyer’s Orlando strategy
ParkProperty Capital is a privately held apartment investment firm with offices in Atlanta and Hamburg, Germany. It pitches itself as a gateway to U.S. multifamily real estate for European investors.
The company is backed by members of Germany’s Otto family and invests through funds as well as direct family investments. In April 2025, ParkProperty claimed to have made 24 investments since its founding in 2020, representing nearly 7,000 apartments, $2.04 billion in assets under management and $1 billion in invested equity.
Hadlow closely matches the firm’s acquisition criteria. ParkProperty targets professionally managed garden-style and mid-rise communities with at least 150 apartments in growing metropolitan areas. Orlando is one of its named target markets, and the company typically looks to invest between $15 million and $45 million in equity in an individual transaction.
The acquisition appears to be ParkProperty’s second publicly disclosed Orlando investment. GrowthSpotter reported in 2023 that the company was working with Winter Park-based Epoch Residential on a 325-unit apartment development in Lake Nona after securing a $54.7 million construction loan from TD Bank. The project has since been completed and is leasing as Brisolé.
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